Tag: bullshit

Diet Myths Busted!

Diets rarely work, they’re based on information perpetuated by companies that are interested in selling products and don’t have the interest of the actual consumer in mind.  Diet culture has taken over our society and it is a harmful trigger to many eating disorders, especially orthorexia.  Here we will take 5 popular diet myths that have gained popularity and begin to understand why they’re wrong… and bust them! (if you’re confused why I’m saying “busted” instead of “debunked” then take a peek at the video above..)

Cutting carbs helps you lose weight – Newsflash! Your body uses carbs as its main source of energy! When you cut out carbs the myth proclaims that your body will burn fat stores as energy but the truth is it burns muscle tissue.  When your body starts breaking down this lean muscle your metabolism slows down because muscle keeps your metabolism up.  There’s a lot of health risks involved in cutting carbs out of your intake.  Also low carb diets are just a fad diet, meaning the second you lose the ridiculous amount of self control it takes to keep them up all of the weight will come piling back – especially since your metabolism was lowered in the process.

Eating fat can make you fat – This has got to be one of the most bullshit diet myths out there.  And it was all conceived so that food companies could make more money by selling low fat processed versions of their products.  The truth is that healthy fats can help prevent and reverse heart disease, shut off cravings, and speed up your metabolism. In fact if losing weight is what you are aiming to do, eating fats regularly in your diet while eating intuitively has proved to make you feel full faster and for longer thus leading to less overall consumption of calories naturally without intentional restriction. Plus fat adds flavor and enjoyment to life and that’s what’s important.

Eating after 8 is bad –Apparently the reasoning behind this particular myth is that if you eat too close to bed time then your body won’t have the time to burn off the energy by moving around during the day.  Here’s the thing though, your body uses the calories you consume whether you are moving or sleeping.  Even while you’re sleeping (actually especially while you are sleeping) your metabolism is resetting all of your bodies systems and pushing you through REM sleep – it needs energy to do all of that and ensure you get a good nights sleep.  Also, Is your body a business?  Does it have closing hours?  Hell no – if you are hungry after 8 then EAT – it’s always better to honor your body’s cravings in an effort to eat intuitively then it is to ignore the natural signals your body is sending you.

Only eat once you’re hungry – Why wait until you are miserable and hungry to eat?   Why ever put yourself in this state when you could just keep yourself satiated all day long? If you eat breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner on a regular schedule and each meal or snack before you become starved then you’ll always be satisfied and never miserable.  From a weight loss perspective this is ideal because when you are hungry then you are more likely to binge on food out of starvation, whereas if you eat regularly the urge to overeat is less likely to come up.

 Losing weight is all about willpower – This myth perpetuates yet another myth that not-thin people are lazy or lack self control which extends into the real world thin privileged society we all live in.  There are so many more factors than just “willpower” that factor into every individuals ability to lose weight whether those are genetic, environmental, hormonal, etc.  Plus, some people aren’t meant to be rail thin and their metabolism protects them from that.  There is so much more to losing weight healthily than just self control or willpower.

Body Mass Index: The Meter of Lies

When suffering from an eating disorder numbers become a very integral part of life.  Weight, calorie intake, calorie output, and every number on every nutrition label are constantly circling the brain like a 90s cartoon character trying to do math.

giphy

Of course, there is also BMI.  BMI, short for Body Mass Index, is technically the measure of body fat using height and weight.  It calculates whether an individual is underweight, “normal”, overweight, obese, etc.  BMI is a widely used evaluation by doctors to assess a person’s health.  It is also a malicious meter of lies.  I was obsessed with my BMI while I was sick, before I realized that where I fell on the chart was not at all an accurate picture of my health or anyone else’s.

quetelet_adolphe
Pictured: actual evil wizard

First thing is first, the evil wizard who invented the BMI equation gave instructions to not use BMI the exact way we have been using it for decades.  Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet (ridiculous name) said himself that the formula should not be used to suggest an individual’s “fatness”.  Instead the equation was meant to measure obesity throughout a population to help the government determine how to allocate resources.  He’s still an evil wizard in my book though for bringing the BMI into the world in the first place.

BMI does NOT account for gender, age, waist size, bone density, or muscle mass.  For instance, athletes and people with strong bones will often be classified as overweight or obese because bone and muscle are denser than fat.  Some of the fittest and healthiest #bodygoals you can think of including many body building competitors are technically obese?!?! That alone should tell you how grossly inaccurate this whole concept is.

The very notion of BMI suggests there are defined groups of underweight, ideal, overweight and obese people and that these groups have borders that are separated simply by a decimal place.  That is completely ridiculous.  Let’s just call a spade a spade,  BMI is bullshit.

Before I had an eating disorder a doctor looked me in the face and told me that I was overweight.  I went home with this information and internalized it.  At that time according to the BMI chart all I had to do was lose 2 pounds to be considered “normal”.  2 POUNDS! Perhaps, had I not been PMSing that day or had gone to the bathroom before my appointment the doctor would have never said that to me.  But he did, and I heard it.  I set my weight loss goal and got crackin’.  Then, long story short I went too far and ended up with anorexia.

IMG_3328.PNGHere’s the thing about my eating disorder.  For the majority of the time I was sick, I was never “technically” deemed underweight according to the BMI chart.  An 18.5 or below is considered underweight and for the most part I hovered at 18.8.  My ED begged me to eat less and less to stay below that arbitrary threshold.  But while my hair was falling out, my bones were sticking out, my mental health was spiraling, and I was starving any doctor could have looked at me and told me that I was “ideal”!  Let me tell you, I was not.  Fortunately, now I don’t know my BMI and I honestly can’t even take the time to figure it out because I know that is a completely garbage number.

Let’s just all vow to never check our BMI again or let it dictate our behavior towards our bodies.  If a doctor tries to give you any advice based on it slap them!*

*Do not physically assault medical professionals, the slap should be figurative.

 

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